"That kid was on stage at the Olympics, something I never dreamed of. Since Ai Fukuhara was born, she has held a total of 7 Olympic Games, and she has participated in 4 consecutive olympic games, which is really lucky. Fukuhara's beloved mother, Chiyo Fukuhara, said.
In Chiyo Fukuhara's view, Ai Fukuhara has not changed much from when she was a child, she is an ordinary member of her own family, but she has been playing table tennis. What impressed her most was that when Ai Fukuhara was 5 or 6 years old, she had to find training opponents for her and formulate training content, and she found all these tasks very difficult.
Chiyo, a former table tennis player, often plays with Ai Fukuhara herself, and she tries harder than when she was an athlete, so much so that her shoulder is injured.
When Ai Fukuhara first practiced the confrontation, the goal was 1000 rounds, and Chiyo often made mistakes in 2 or 300 rounds, at which point Ai Fukuhara would cry and say, "This is my mother's mistake, not my mistake." "The most important thing about training is that the day's plan must be completed. To this day, Chiyo still finds the situation vivid.
The two men's training continued until Fukuhara fell in love with junior high school. Chiyo believes that Ai Fukuhara is not a genius, she grew up with practice. There are genius players in the world, but Ai Fukuhara is not, and she always practices very seriously. Sometimes Chiyo thinks that if Ai Fukuhara could have a relaxed play when she trained, her current way of thinking might change.
Chiyo Fukuhara said, "Until now Ai Fukuhara is still active on stage, which is a great thing. In retrospect, our mother and son slowly explored like blind elephants. No one makes a model, we can only take one step at a time, and we don't know how to do it well at the beginning. We always believe that if we lay a good foundation, even if it is the top of the pyramid, we can slowly climb up. We also believe that ordinary children, trained like us, may be stronger than Ai Fukuhara. ”
Ai Fukuhara is the oldest of the Japanese team to compete in the Rio Olympics, and this time Rio may be the last. Athletes are always injured, especially as they get older. When Ai Fukuhara was injured, Chiyo was so heartbroken that he even wanted Ai Fukuhara to retire. But for the Olympics, she said: "Now it's all about the coaches and the team leaders, I'm just watching over the side and praying for her." ”
One thing in particular deserves to be mentioned. Ai Fukuhara always thinks of the big earthquake caused by the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident and thinks of the villagers in Sendai's hometown who were affected. Every time she came back from a foreign competition, as long as she had time, she would go to the disaster area to comfort her. Ai Fukuhara and the children of Sendai have agreed that this rio Olympics must work hard to win medals. This time her wish came true.